Audience development is a long-term process specifically designed to meet the needs of an existing and potential audience and is undoubtedly an important part of the development of individuals and organisations within the cultural and creative industries and clearly exceeds its borders. We could simplify its role as follows: Audience development helps cultural organisations to maintain ongoing relationships with their audience. Audience development, unlike commonly used marketing strategies, places emphasis on a long-term relationship with audiences. It aims not only to increase the number of people in the audience (the number of visitors or paying customers) but in many cases focuses specifically on expanding the visitor base and ensuring its development. Audience development can be understood as a way not only to increase audience’ standards and education, but also to improve the quality of the cultural production or product itself.
What we consider to be crucial is that audience development puts audience, the clients, at the heart of all activities, and any activity of an organisation or an artist is aimed at the audience. We do not talk about these being subject to the audience’ taste or needs. It is necessary to understand that we are dealing with an attitude which at all times counts on the audience (the visitors) and considers it from different points of view. Audience development mostly covers research, marketing, dramaturgy, programming, communication, education, and maintaining relationships with diverse audiences and individuals.
The non-profit organisation Košice 2013 worked systematically and provided various forms of support for new genres and presentational forms of art and culture during the preparation of the project and throughout 2013. This created an opportunity to create a relationship with a new audience, as well as present a new offer to an existing audience.
It was clear that in the coming years, it will be important to keep this trend and to involve as many cultural and creative industries as possible in a larger audience development programme. This is what the non-profit organisation Košice 2013 has worked towards since 2014, later also the non-profit organisation Creative Industry Košice, which, besides the collection of data on cultural and social events as part of the acquisition of information about the audience, takes care of the education of cultural operators, organisations and individuals active in the cultural and creative industry and familiarises them with the concept of audience development. This is also because the experience of the EHMK (The European Capital of Culture) has shown that international experience, confrontation with current trends, education, professional support and the development of the audience are the most important factors for the future success of these entities. In view of the shortcomings and lack of professionals in the field of audience development and strategic work, it considers it necessary to expand the awareness of the audience development and to educate those cultural and creative sector professionals in this subject.
The European Capital of Culture project has helped Košice make a significant shift in the perception of not only culture but also the role of creativity in the social and economic contexts. Support and education in the cultural and creative industries are crucial, as well as the awareness of the audience needs and a systematic approach towards educating the audience and its relationship with the cultural production.
As already mentioned, the non-profit organisation Košice 2013 began mapping preferences and composition of audiences at cultural events in Košice in 2014. In two years, a sample of over 2500 people was surveyed. The audience survey continued in 2016 and will continue to be organised. The expected result of such a long and extensive research is how the audience needs and preferences have changed in any one place, in this case in Košice. Apart from the fact that the surveys are evaluated annually, their results are then compared with the results from previous years. The questionnaire survey consists of fifteen questions that are categorised in the evaluation as demographic sample data, organisation of the event, how well the audience was informed, events in Košice and general questions. Subsequently, questions are evaluated individually, and correlations of these questions are then worked out.
The concept of audience development is one of the main objectives of Creative Europe project, which confirms the importance of this concept. This fact is also reflected by the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic in the Strategy for the Development of Culture for 2014 – 2020. In its first strategic area, which is the formation of cultural needs and the demand for culture, it explicitly expresses the need for the building of the audience and participation.
“Education for active participation in culture and the promotion of education for cultural consumption is one of the priorities of the strategic direction in culture. Only a culture that has viewers, readers and perceivers can claim the justification of state or public funding. “(Strategy for the Development of Culture 2014 – 2020, Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic)
Cultural and artistic production has its own specifics. Besides being a bearer of values and symbolic meanings, it represents the results of mental work, talent and creativity of people in order to reach out and spread their message to others – to the audience. From the point of view of cultural organisations, the development of audiences is crucial to their long-term existence. A stable audience base provides an opportunity to develop, bring new ideas, build reputation and relationships. In terms of sustainability, the audience, in addition to confirming the value of creation, also carries economic importance. In our conditions, it is a common phenomenon that cultural organisations operate only according to subsidy schemes, their existence is put in a position dependent on the duration of resources, the assessment of grant commissions, and often the organisation changes the content of projects towards what constitutes the grant priorities and pushes aside the strategy and the priorities of the organisation itself. Speaking about the economic significance of audience, we can say that a broad audience interest can bring in revenues that partially ensure independent functioning. On the other hand, a wide public interest can attract the attention of sponsors, partners, and brings many other benefits primarily unrelated to economic significance. In the event that an organisation is not forced to be subject to grant calls and change its programme and operation accordingly, it must be emphasised that it retains its integrity and reputation.
Furthermore, when discussing the economic importance of audiences, we can afford a small parallel to the world of business. In the business sector, clients represent the viewers’ position. Business uses a variety of methods to establish a relationship with a client, maintain that relationship, and understand the client. It uses marketing, branding, communication and PR to build and maintain as many customers as possible for as long as possible. The exact or very similar methods should also be applicable to the relationship of cultural organisation and its visitors. That is why in audience development it is important to conduct a survey, which plays a crucial role not only in getting to know the audience, but also involves customer care, PR activities, targeted campaigns, and other ways to understand the audience and know how to attract and keep the audience new.
An incredibly essential and indispensable step in the approach to audience development is to understand the difference between short-term activities or interventions to attract and work with the audience, including the development of the future audience.
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